British team qualify for European Championships final

The GBR senior women’s team comfortably negotiated qualification on the first day of the European Championships in Glasgow to make it in to Saturdays team final. Kelly Simm, Goergia-Mae Fenton, Lucy Stanhope, Alice Kinsella and Taeja James combined to score a team total of 158.795 points to finish in 4th and make it to the final.

Individually Georgia-Mae Fenton produced an exquisite floor performance to make the final in 4th place whilst Kelly Simm, who lead the team with a superb all-around display, also made the bars final.

Kelly summed up the team display saying: "We're really happy with the team performance, the aim was to make the team final and we've done that. Every gymnast contributed, and we really loved the atmosphere in the arena. Personally, I'm really happy to have completed four routines for the team and to make the bars final with a new routine is a bonus. We've gelled really well together as a team and rallied round after losing Becky (Downie) earlier in the week. Anything can happen in the final and we know there's a few extra marks we can get so we'll see. Competing in Glasgow again brings back great memories and we've been very successful here before so let's hope that continues."

The format of qualifying involved 3 of the team competing on each piece of apparatus with every score counting to the team total and also towards qualifying for individual finals which take place in Sunday.

Beginning on floor Alice Kinsella was first up and put in a confident performance to steady any nerves in the team scoring 12.900. Kelly Simm followed up with some very powerful tumbling and a total of 12.933 points for the team. Georgia-Mae Fenton then performed a stunning routine nailing every landing from her tumbling and showing some beautiful artistry to score 13.200. Kelly, Alice and Lucy Stanhope were selected for vault; Kelly scoring 13.866, Alice 14.100 and Lucy Stanhope 14.266 to maintain the strong start to Britain’s competition.

On bars Kelly Simm continued to shine producing an excellent routine for a score of 13.866. Lucy Stanhope followed suit with great composure in her first senior European Championships to score her and the team 13.066. Georgia-Mae Fenton last up had to pause slightly to circle then regrip the top bar near the start of her highly difficult routine which scored her 12.666. Finally, on beam Kelly Simm was once again was in superb form, she scored 13.033 completing an outstanding performance across all apparatus. Georgia-Mae Fenton followed and unfortunately counted a fall as she couldn’t control her spin skill scoring 12.266 and Commonwealth champion Alice Kinsella following up also counted a fall and scored 12.900. The mistakes at the weren’t costly however and the team comfortably made it to the final.

The European Championships continue on Friday with the junior women’s apparatus qualifying, team and all-around competition. We’ll be uploading all the British girl’s routines to our event page.